Social science

This article is about the science studying social groups. For the integrated field of study intended to promote civic competence, see
Social studies. For the social-political-economic theory first pioneered by Karl Marx, see
Scientific socialism.

Positivist social scientists use methods resembling those of the
natural sciences as tools for understanding society, and so define science in its stricter
modern sense.
Interpretivist social scientists, by contrast, may use social critique or symbolic interpretation rather than constructing empirically
falsifiable theories, and thus treat science in its broader sense. In modern academic practice, researchers are often
eclectic, using multiple
methodologies (for instance, by combining the
quantitative and
qualitative researchs). The term
social research has also acquired a degree of autonomy as practitioners from various disciplines share in its aims and methods.

The beginnings of the social sciences in the 18th century are reflected in the
grand encyclopedia of Diderot, with articles from
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other pioneers. The growth of the social sciences is also reflected in other specialized encyclopedias. The modern period saw "social science" first used as a distinct conceptual field.[4] Social science was influenced by
positivism,[1] focusing on knowledge based on actual positive sense experience and avoiding the negative;
metaphysical speculation was avoided.
Auguste Comte used the term "science sociale" to describe the field, taken from the ideas of
Charles Fourier; Comte also referred to the field as social physics.[1][5]

Following this period, there were five paths of development that sprang forth in the social sciences, influenced by Comte on other fields.[1] One route that was taken was the rise of
social research. Large
statistical surveys were undertaken in various parts of the United States and Europe. Another route undertaken was initiated by
Émile Durkheim, studying "social facts", and
Vilfredo Pareto, opening metatheoretical ideas and individual theories. A third means developed, arising from the methodological dichotomy present, in which
social phenomena were identified with and understood; this was championed by figures such as
Max Weber. The fourth route taken, based in economics, was developed and furthered economic knowledge as a
hard science. The last path was the
correlation of knowledge and
social values; the
antipositivism and
verstehen sociology of
Max Weber firmly demanded this distinction. In this route, theory (description) and prescription were non-overlapping formal discussions of a subject.

Around the start of the 20th century,
Enlightenment philosophy was challenged in various quarters. After the use of classical theories since the end of the scientific revolution, various fields substituted mathematics studies for experimental studies and examining equations to build a theoretical structure. The development of social science subfields became very quantitative in
methodology. The
interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature of scientific inquiry into human behaviour, social and environmental factors affecting it, made many of the natural sciences interested in some aspects of social science methodology.[6] Examples of boundary blurring include emerging disciplines like social research of
medicine,
sociobiology,
neuropsychology,
bioeconomics and the
history and
sociology of science. Increasingly,
quantitative research and
qualitative methods are being integrated in the study of human action and its implications and consequences. In the first half of the 20th century, statistics became a free-standing discipline of applied mathematics. Statistical methods were used confidently.

In the contemporary period,
Karl Popper and
Talcott Parsons influenced the furtherance of the social sciences.[1] Researchers continue to search for a unified consensus on what methodology might have the power and refinement to connect a proposed "grand theory" with the various midrange theories that, with considerable success, continue to provide usable frameworks for massive, growing data banks; for more, see
consilience. The social sciences will for the foreseeable future be composed of different zones in the research of, and sometime distinct in approach toward, the field.[1]

The term "social science" may refer either to the specific sciences of society established by thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, or more generally to all disciplines outside of "
noble science" and
arts. By the late 19th century, the academic social sciences were constituted of five fields:
jurisprudence and amendment of the
law,
education,
health,
economy and
trade, and
art.[2]